


Decreasing

by PartridgeOnAPearTree



Series: Transversal [21]
Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 14:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6570316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PartridgeOnAPearTree/pseuds/PartridgeOnAPearTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wind was cold that night, and it was silent except for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Decreasing

**Author's Note:**

> i had fun cosplaying junko yesterday  
> do u guys wanna be blinded by my face  
> look here  
> partridgeonapeartree.tumblr.com/tagged/cosplay

Enoshima happily moves her tongue across the surface. The excitement was evident in her eyes, almost as if this was what she wanted all her life. Naegi should have known really—she seemed like the type anyway—so he wonders why he's still pretty surprised at the moment.

 

Her teeth lightly graze against it, and she swallows, wiping the side of her mouth after.

 

Naegi agreed to getting ice cream with Enoshima and Fujisaki tonight, but unfortunately, after Fujisaki stayed for maybe just half an hour, something came up and he had to head back to his house immediately. Fujisaki’s house is just near the campus, so it was pretty convenient for him even if he doesn’t live in the dorm.

 

Now it’s just Enoshima and Naegi, sitting on one of the benches in the courtyard, and he badly wants to go already—has been trying for the past few hours, actually—but she keeps on telling him to stay and he doesn’t really want to be rude even if it’s Enoshima.

 

He feels Enoshima’s thigh lightly nudging his, and he looks up from his own ice cream to face her. “What is it, Enoshima-san? Do you finally want to leave now?”

 

She gives her ice cream another lick before replying. “No way. Why are you so eager to go, Naegi-kun? Don’t you like hanging out with me?”

 

“Oh, I love hanging out with you so much, Enoshima-san.” Naegi wanted to roll his eyes as he said that, but he stopped himself. “You're one of my most favorite people, after all.”

 

“Aww, well, isn’t that sweet?” Enoshima scoots closer to him, peering at his face carefully. “You're one of my most favorite people too.”

 

Naegi would have scooted back, but he realizes that he was already on the end of the bench. “Thanks, Enoshima-san. I appreciate that.”

 

“Well,” She moves even closer, stopping when her lips were just mere inches against his ear. He could have even sworn that they ghosted just very slightly against his skin, and he makes a conscious effort to not accidentally touch her clothes with his ice cream. “Because I'm so fond of you, I have a secret to tell.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Well, before I tell you though, can I have a taste of your ice cream?” She finally pulls away, returning to her previous position. “I never tasted vanilla ice cream before. If you want to, I can give you some of mine too, hm?”

 

“Don’t worry. You can have it, Enoshima-san.” Naegi offers her the ice cream, putting it closer to her. “I don’t really want it anymore.”

 

She tentatively dips down and gives it an experimental lick. She nods, seemingly pleased, before wrapping her lips around the ice cream to bite off a bit of it. “You should take it, you know.” Naegi says after a while. “I don’t want to have to hold it for you as you eat, Enoshima-san.”

 

“Don’t spoil my fun now.” She momentarily looks up to face him. “You don’t know how many people would be willing to kill you just to be in your position right now, Naegi-kun.”

 

Naegi chuckles. “They should go ahead and just kill me already then.”

 

“Aw, you're so harsh, you know. You hurt my feelings!” One side of the ice cream was starting to melt off, so she makes sure to lick from the cone up so as to prevent any from going to waste. “If you're so impatient, then I won’t want to tell you that secret anymore… and it’s pretty important too. What a waste.”

 

“Oh, come on now, Enoshima-san. Don’t be like that.” Naegi smiles. “I'm still here, aren’t I? Even if I badly want to go back already.”

 

“Well, you have a point. Maybe I should be flattered that the master of the world is hanging out with me, the humble and simple Junko-chan.” She goes back to the surface of the ice cream, biting off a larger portion than before and lifting her head as she swallows. “Ah, cold, too cold!”

 

“Your own ice cream will melt if you continue this, Enoshima-san.”

 

“Do you want it?” Enoshima puts her ice cream closer to him too. “Strawberry is good too.”

 

“I'm really full, to be honest.” In more ways than one. Naegi’s pretty full of this too and wants nothing more than to go back to his dorm room. “That’s why I offered you mine in the first place, right?”

 

Enoshima frowns and pushes her ice cream closer to his face. “Come on, just do it. Or else I really won’t tell you.”

 

Naegi resists the urge to glare—or maybe he actually failed, glaring already—as he sucks off the smallest portion that he can get. “Satisfied now, Enoshima-san?”

 

She hums, as if still thinking about something, before pursing her lips. “Not that much, but I guess that will have to do for now. How sweet! It seems that we indirectly already made out, hm?”

 

“…So will you tell me now?”

 

“Ah, damn this all to hell!” Enoshima grumbles as some of the vanilla ice cream melts to her fingers. She moves the cones out of the way, preventing them from spilling on her skirt. Naegi supposes that despite herself, she really is still the Super High School Level Fashionista, after all… “Wait, wait, I’ll tell you. Be patient.”

 

She lifts her hand to her mouth, licking the spilled ice cream from her fingers. “Ah, ah, I hate it when this happens. Anyway, Naegi-kun, listen carefully.”

 

Naegi nods. “Alright.”

 

“What gift did Komaeda-kun give you again for that so-called Day of Hope?”

 

“…Excuse me?”

 

Enoshima rolls her eyes. “I know, I know, I was there, but just answer it. I want this to be interactive.”

 

“Well… a box full of strips of papers containing his messages for me. Why?”

 

“Did he give a gift to anyone else?”

 

“I think Komaeda-kun tried to give one to Hinata-kun, but it was rejected. I told Hinata-kun that it’d be better to accept it though, so I wonder what happened now.”

 

“And did you know what that gift is?”

 

“Well, I never really asked… Is it my business? Why are you even asking me these things, Enoshima-san?”

 

She lifts an eyebrow. “Why don’t you ask Komaeda-kun right now?”

 

Now that he thinks about it, Komaeda really never did mention what the gift was. He doesn’t understand why it’s his business, but if it’s Enoshima who's asking, then there must be a good reason to find out. He pulls out his phone from his pocket, looking at Enoshima before typing a message.

 

‘ _Good evening, Komaeda-kun! :) I was just thinking, and I suddenly got curious… What did you give Hinata-kun for the Day of Hope?_ ’

 

Naegi pockets the phone again as soon as his message sent. Enoshima was swaying from side to side, some of her hair rhythmically hitting the side of his face as she does so, and he does his best to ignore his growing annoyance. “Can’t you just tell me why you're asking? Does it really matter what the gift was?”

 

“Shhh,” Enoshima stops moving, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’ll tell you once Komaeda-kun replies.”

 

Naegi nods. He feels something cold and wet touch his lips, and he lightly moves away, furrowing his eyebrows. Enoshima seems to have pushed her strawberry ice cream against his mouth, and she let out a loud laugh as he wipes the cream from his lips.

 

“What was that for, Enoshima-san?”

 

“Eat my strawberry ice cream, Naegi-kun. Pretty please?”

 

“I already ate some of it earlier, right?” His phone vibrates in his pocket as he speaks. Enoshima looked like she still wanted to retort something against what he said, but she too stops to peek at Naegi’s phone as he opens Komaeda’s message.

 

‘ _Good evening, Naegi-kun! : > It’s just a photo album with all my pictures with him. I don’t think he already opened it though… Hinata-kun was really bothered by the fact that he wasn’t able to give me anything this year to the point that he almost actually didn’t accept my gift for him :( I'm happy that he already accepted it now, but I'm sure that he hasn’t really looked at it yet because I know he’d say something about it if he did._’

 

“Aw, well, isn’t that cute?” Enoshima comments as she moves closer against him to get a clearer view of the message. “Are you jealous? Hinata-kun received a photo album while you received a box. The favoritism is too obvious it’s giving me a headache. Aren’t you supposed to be the boyfriend?”

 

Naegi actually laughs at that. “Maybe I'm a little upset. What do you think, Enoshima-san?”

 

“I swear I’ll throw up all the ice cream that I ate if ever that is true.” She rolls her eyes. “He's not even cute. Too tall, too pale, too thin… and his hair is just so weird.”

 

“Hey, don’t be too mean to him.” Naegi chuckles. “He _is_ cute. You just can’t see it.”

 

“Ah, ah, I'm really going to throw up now!”

 

“Anyway, we’re getting off topic.” Naegi points out before Enoshima distracts him again. “Komaeda-kun already replied. What now?”

 

“You should totally tell him that you're jealous and that his gift for you sucks.” She tries to get his phone from him, but he moves it out of the way, already pocketing it. “Aw, fine. Bummer.”

 

“Just tell me what you wanted to tell me.”

 

She frowns. “Eat my ice cream first.”

 

“Why are you even so insistent? I already said that I'm full.” Naegi resists the urge to frown too as he takes the ice cream cone that Enoshima has been offering to him nonstop. Or at least tried to, because she moves it out of the way. “…What now? Come on, Enoshima-san. I’ll eat it already.”

 

“Never mind.” She pouts. “Junko-chan is upset now.”

 

It’s like talking to a child. It’s getting really irritating especially since Enoshima already is annoying on her own, coupled with the fact that he has never really been fond of kids in the first place. “I'm sorry, okay? Give it to me. I’ll eat it.”

 

She looks at him for a while, almost thoughtfully, before she dumps the strawberry ice cream on her own palm. “Here. Eat it from my hand.”

 

He furrows his eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

 

“Totally.” She lifts his vanilla ice cream to her lips, returning to peacefully eating some of it. “If you do it, I’ll really tell you that important secret.”

 

If only he could, Naegi would have killed Enoshima already. He forces a smile at her as he begrudgingly lifts her hand in a gentle manner even if all he wants to do at the moment is to break it together with her arm. He bites off the part of the ice cream that still is slightly solid—though in truth, it’s melting quite fast because of her body heat—and he swallows it as quickly as he can.

 

“Don’t leave anything, Naegi-kun.” She says after she herself finishes licking a portion of the vanilla ice cream. “Clean it up thoroughly.”

 

He gets the brief thought of biting off her fingers one by one, but he does his best to forget about it. He drags his tongue all across her palm, making sure to retrieve all the melted ice cream on her skin. The sensation of the cold cream in contrast with her warm skin was surprisingly not as unpleasant as he thought. The same goes for strawberry ice cream itself.

 

He flickers his tongue over certain parts of her palm—he's glad that this is looking like it will be over quicker than he thought—and he notices that she too has returned to happily sucking on the ice cream on the cone in her other hand.

 

He takes two of her fingers inside his mouth, sucking on them carefully too so that hers nail won’t accidentally scratch the back off his mouth. When he's sure that they’ve been rid of ice cream, he removes them from his mouth and takes in another two.

 

Her fingers curl a bit, and he straightens them with his tongue. He's thankful that she didn’t resist that motion, and when he thinks that he has done enough, he pulls away, inspecting her hand thoroughly. “…How was that? Are you happy now?”

 

“Ahh, you’ve made me happier than you can ever imagine!” She crosses her legs. “The look on your face was beautiful, Naegi-kun. You obviously didn’t like what you were doing! Ahh, were you despairing? Were you despairing!? Were you ashamed because you had to do something like that!? Tell me how much despair you felt! This is making me feel so aroused!”

 

“…Oh, I wasn’t despairing.” Naegi forces a smile again. He can’t believe that his displeasure showed on his face. “I enjoyed it very much. If anything, I'm willing to do it again.”

 

“Ooh, careful, you'll tempt me!” She licks her lips. “Anyway, anyway, since I'm actually satisfied now… I’ll tell you the secret. Clean up your ears and make sure to listen carefully, okay?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Well, did you know…?” She hums, smiling. “Did you know that someone is looking for you right now?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean exactly what I said.” She lets out a giggle. “You know, you know, you'll probably be found by that person looking for you already! But don’t worry, we got you covered. No need to thank me! Junko-chan is just so, so used to saving the day, after all!”

 

“Who's looking for me, Enoshima-san?”

 

“As I said, don’t worry, don’t worry!” She hops off the bench. “You'll find out soon enough. Just one last question though…”

 

It’s as if the whole world stopped as they made eye contact. She still had the same smile, and Naegi couldn’t hear anything else aside from her voice.

 

“I wanted to ask… You’ve never had a miscalculation before, right, Naegi-kun?”

 

“What do you—”

 

It was like a dream.

 

Enoshima was suddenly gone, almost as if she has never been around in the first place. The courtyard had no one except for himself, and he blinked repeatedly, the pathetic realization that he's actually feeling confused right now running through his head.

 

He doesn’t like confusion. Confusion makes him feel uncomfortable. He equates confusion to cluelessness, cluelessness to disadvantage, and disadvantage to powerlessness. And of course, if there's anything that he hates the most, it’s that feeling.

 

“Enoshima-san, this isn’t funny.” He looks around. There's no way that she could have gotten away that fast. “What were you talking about earlier? Please clarify it to me.”

 

Naegi hears running, so he turns—maybe this was just Enoshima’s idea of a joke, really, it fits so much—but what he has seen was entirely far from his expectations. He finds himself calming down a bit—he still doesn’t have even a rough guess of what's going on—but somehow, he can sense that it’s his best bet to be calm at the moment.

 

There was Hinata running towards him. He too has confusion evident in his own face, and he looked so stupid that Naegi briefly wishes that he himself didn’t look like that. Hinata stops, taking deep breaths after, and his eyes were trained on Naegi, almost glaring.

 

“Good evening, Hinata-kun.” Naegi decides to greet. “You're going for a night jog?”

 

“I can’t believe that you're actually here…” Hinata’s breathing is starting to stabilize. “…We need to talk.”

 

“Alright.” Naegi nods, smiling. “How fitting since we’re already near this bench. Do you want to sit down?”

 

“No.” Hinata’s answer was abrupt, nothing like his usual answers full of insecurity and hesitation. Naegi would have lifted an eyebrow at that if only he could. “This will just be fast depending on you.”

 

They were standing with a space between them—not too distant nor too far. It’s what Naegi would call a safe distance. If he were to approximate, maybe the space between them would be more or less half a meter. Whatever this is, Naegi actually is feeling curious.

 

“Tell me, Naegi.” Hinata continues speaking. “…Were you aware that the pen you lent me had disappearing ink?”

 

The courtyard was suddenly silent except for a soft breeze.

 

At the moment, Naegi isn’t sure what to feel.

 

He can’t say that he was surprised: this should have been something that he has expected to happen. Hinata would inevitably find out because he would be the first person to know about his own results, of course. So his knowing about the pen wasn’t the surprise.

 

If anything, it’s… the fact that he's asking Naegi about it?

 

“No, I didn’t.” Naegi furrows his eyebrows. “It has disappearing ink? Wait… then what happened to your exam?”

 

Hinata closes his eyes as he lets out a sigh. He looks so frustrated and tired somehow. It’s pretty entertaining watching him like this. “Tell me the truth, Naegi.”

 

“I really didn’t know.” Naegi repeats. “Have you asked Komaeda-kun about it? Because that pen was from him. He gave it to me. I mentioned that to you, right?”

 

“He said that he doesn’t know anything about it either.” Hinata opens his eyes again, his forehead creased. “He doesn’t even know that the pen exists. So if he's saying the truth, then you…”

 

It seems that Naegi has overestimated Komaeda. Back then, he didn’t even have to brief Komaeda about not telling anyone the real reason why he avoided his class for a good amount of time. It looks like Naegi was wrong to think that his pick up will always be as fast.

 

Naegi wants to go and hurt him right now, but he has to go back to the situation at hand.

 

“I'm the one saying the truth.” Naegi replies. “Komaeda-kun gave me that pen. I lent it to you because he said it was a lucky pen. I didn’t know that it had disappearing ink in it.”

 

“Komaeda has never ever given anyone a gift that wasn’t customized to some extent.” Hinata looks like he badly wants to just ask for help then and there. “…He loves you too much. He would never give you a plain pen with no striking qualities as a gift and just call it ‘lucky’ halfheartedly.”

 

“Is that your reason why you can’t believe that he gave me that pen, Hinata-kun?” Naegi bites his lower lip. “I know… it’s as you said. He's fond of giving customized gifts. I also am aware that he loves me very much, as you also said, and I do love him dearly too. But that doesn’t mean that he can’t make an exception even just once. Are you trying to mock his gift for me? Yes, it was plain, so are you trying to say that he loves me less then?”

 

“T-That’s not it!” Hinata grits his teeth. “I'm just trying to say that he loves you too much for that! He won’t make an exception. Or at least not for you of all people… because you're the one that he values the most. You know how he is. You're always with him. He self-deprecates because of the littlest things. That’s why you'd know that he’d never forgive himself if he gives you something that simple!”

 

“But the truth still stands that he gave it to me.” Naegi makes sure to stay  calm. “It’s still true that I had the pen with me because I received it from him. It’s still true that I was able to lend it to you because I received it from him. No matter what you say about Komaeda-kun’s fondness for customization, his love for me, his self-deprecation, the pen’s simplicity… the truth still stands that I got it from him. Can you try concretely proving otherwise?”

 

“I-I would have seen it. If he bought one, I would have seen it. There's no way that he wouldn’t talk about it because it’s a normal-looking pen that actually has disappearing ink inside, but instead, the first time I saw the pen was from you.”

 

“You're too confident, Hinata-kun.” Naegi smiles. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that he might have bought it and given it to me directly without showing you or talking to you about it? Did you really think that he’d find it necessary to do that?”

 

Naegi’s replies obviously hurt. Hinata flinched just slightly, but Naegi still caught it on time. “…I know it’s not necessary to show or tell me.”

 

“That’s right.” Naegi nods. “So it’s a possibility that he just gave it to me directly, right?”

 

“Even so!” Hinata clenches his fist. “Suppose he did give you the pen. He would have told you that it had disappearing ink then! Because there's no way that he’ll risk you using it for something important! He wouldn’t want you to accidentally ruin your grades or maybe your life, depending on the importance of that thing you plan to answer with that pen! And you can’t tell me that he might be planning to just play a prank because he won’t want to do that to anyone! Especially not to you!”

 

“That’s still not concrete proof, you know.” Naegi bites his lower lip again. “There's also the… unfortunate possibility that Komaeda-kun was secretly that kind of person all along. Of course I wouldn’t want to believe that either, but it’s the only logical explanation for his giving that pen to me.”

 

“I entertained that possibility too… but as I was running here, I realized that there's just no way! He's always so happy talking about you. Hell, he never smiles about other things the way he does about matters concerning you! I would never believe that all of that were faked!” Hinata shakes his head. “He was so proud showing me that necklace you gave him. He was so proud of it that he wears it every day, showing it to practically everyone in our class! All of us know how much he loves you because it just… it just shows in his face. The way he blushes when he talks about you, the way he smiles when he talks about you… fuck, even the way his voice sounds changes when he talks about you, that’s why there's no way that I’ll believe that those aren’t real!”

 

“Those can easily be faked too, to be honest.”

 

“Maybe others can, but not him! Not him, Naegi. He's an honest person. And sorry if this is going to sound ridiculous, but I have read enough books to know that blushing can’t be forced. And I'm sure that you'd know that he has blushed so many times because of you already.” Hinata briefly pauses. “…Now that I think about it, I’ve never seen you blush because of him. Even if we usually talk about him and your relationship, you’ve never… I-I know this sounds funny, but I'm making a valid point—”

 

“Ah? If you're talking about me blushing…” Naegi tilts his head. “Clearly, you’ve never seen us having sex, right?”

 

Hinata flinches. “W-What, that’s not my business! Why are you even bringing that up!?”

 

“Right, you’ve never seen us, but I'm pretty sure that you’ve heard us already.” Naegi nods. “That certain night when we were doing some things in the bathroom—you were there outside listening in on us, right, Hinata-kun?”

 

“…W-What are you even talking about—”

 

“Don’t deny it.” Naegi chuckles. “I heard you come in the door. I was hoping that you'd go outside and leave right away the moment you realize what's going on, but oh, I was wrong. I never expected that you'd want to stay and pleasure yourself while listening to your friends having sex. If you ask me, that’s pretty low. Don’t you agree, Hinata-kun?”

 

“Y-You—”

 

“I never told Komaeda-kun about that. I just didn’t want to see him getting so upset upon finding out that the best friend that he trusted turns out to be someone getting off to the thought of him. I bet he's going to feel so violated… but I guess not saying anything was a mistake on my part too. I really should have done something about it right away because why am I even risking his safety knowing that he's roommates with someone like you, right? It’s scary and worrying to think about the things that you can do to him.”

 

“Stop it! I’d never do something like that to Komaeda!”

 

“Right, but you still touched yourself. Hinata-kun, are you trying to rationalize what you did? No matter how you look at this situation, you're clearly on the wrong.” Naegi sighs, shaking his head. “Poor Komaeda-kun. He's so clueless about this whole thing. I need to get him away from you as soon as possible.”

 

“N-No, I—I regret what I did, I wasn’t thinking properly—every day, I regret doing that and if only I could undo it—”

 

“Ah, that’s what they all say, you know.” Naegi bites his lower lip. “Things like ‘ _I shouldn’t have done that_ ’, ‘ _I feel bad for doing that_ ’, and ‘ _I’d do anything I can to change it_ ’… It’s like that popular comparison of trying to tape a smashed mirror, right? Whatever you say right now won’t do anything to retract your mistake, Hinata-kun. You disrespected Komaeda-kun, and really, he deserves to know.”

 

“I’ll tell him myself! You don’t have to meddle in this!”

 

“Hey, don’t say it like that now.” Naegi frowns. “I'm involved in this too, remember? I was the one with him in the bathroom. Besides, Komaeda-kun and I are in a relationship. I don’t think you can blame me for being upset and disgusted with your actions.”

 

“…There's obviously something different about you right now.” Hinata slowly shakes his head. “You're not acting like the usual, Naegi. I wouldn’t be surprised if you're—”

 

“Hey, you were falsely accusing me right from the start., you know, Hinata-kun. It’s only natural that I’d be a little hostile, right?” Naegi does his best to smile apologetically. “Sorry if I was coming off harsh then… but right now that your listening in on us came to light, I just can’t be totally nice now. I can’t forgive you for thinking that way about Komaeda-kun. I hope you understand.”

 

“Y-You're—“ Hinata clenches his fists. “You're just trying to direct the focus away from yourself! If you really cared, then why didn’t you confront me right away? If you're so disgusted and upset… if you find me disrespecting him that unforgivable… that would have been the first thing that you would have done!”

 

“Ah, haha, sorry! It’s not my fault that I'm not used to confrontations. I'm a pretty peaceful person, see?” Naegi smiles again. “I guess the idea of having a fight scared me, but right now, I can’t let it pass anymore. There's no way that I’ll allow Komaeda-kun to continue associating with someone like you.”

 

“I know I did something wrong, but that’s not for you to decide! I don’t care how important you are to him, but our friendship is still separate from your relationship! We’ll settle this on our own!” Hinata trembles a bit. “I don’t care if he also reaches that kind of conclusion. I don’t care if he decides that he doesn’t want to talk with me again anymore. Because that way, at least I know that we settled it among ourselves! Keep out of this!”

 

“As I said,” Naegi makes sure to speak slowly. The obvious patronization makes a visible reaction of anger on Hinata’s face. “I'm also involved in this. The moment I decided to be with him in that bathroom, the moment you decided to listen in on us, you already have involved me. That’s why I don’t have to, as you put it, ‘keep out of this’.”

 

Hinata opens and closes his fist repeatedly as an effort to calm himself down. “…You're trying to distract me, aren’t you? I'm just trying to talk about the pen. I'm sure that Komaeda would never give you that pen without telling you that it has disappearing ink because he cares about you too much!”

 

“Am I trying to distract you, Hinata-kun?” Naegi tilts his head. “Or are you trying to distract me? You're trying to keep the focus out of the really disgusting thing that you did. And if we’re still trying to talk about the pen, then I'm asking for definitive proof, right? It’s true. Komaeda-kun loves me. He’ll never give me a plain gift without customizing it first. Komaeda-kun blushes because of me. Blushing can’t be faked. But at the end of the day, those are just words. They still don’t prove anything.”

 

“Is it not proof enough that he genuinely cares about you and that he’ll never purposefully ruin you!?”

 

“It’s tempting to believe, but… Hinata-kun, do you need help about defining ‘definitive’? Because you seem to be having a difficult time grasping it.”

 

“Stop patronizing me.” Hinata glares. “I know I'm just grasping at nothing here, but I want to believe in Komaeda. I want to believe that he’ll never give you that pen… and since you're so insistent about this ‘definitive’ proof, then why don’t you show me proof that he did give it to you? We’re on equal ground here, Naegi. We both are just spouting words, but we’re not really proving anything.”

 

“You make a good point, Hinata-kun.” Naegi smiles. “Then maybe I should prove it to you. Right here, right now.”

 

Hinata flinches again. “If you can, then go on. I’d like to see it.”

 

Naegi nods as he takes out his phone from his pocket. He's still annoyed and disappointed that Komaeda didn’t understand right away that he has to agree that he lent Naegi that pen, but Naegi doesn’t really have a choice now.

 

He’ll just have to choose his words carefully, and things will go back to being controllable just like the usual.

 

He dials Komaeda’s number and sets the call on speaker mode. He can’t believe that he's actually feeling the tiniest bit of nervousness with each ring that seems to reverberate in the whole place. Hinata was breathing deeply as he closely watches the phone, obviously anticipating Komaeda’s answer to the call as well.

 

“Hello?” There was Komaeda’s voice. His evident cluelessness is almost refreshing. “Naegi-kun?”

 

“Komaeda-kun, good evening. I'm so glad that you picked up.” Naegi speaks. Hinata’s nervousness is showing even more with each second. “There's just something that we need to talk about.”

 

“Oh? Did anything happen? What is it?”

 

“Hinata-kun is with me right now, and he can hear you.” Naegi carefully says. “So I want you to tell him that you gave me a pen a few months back as a gift because he doesn’t believe me.”

 

“Ah? Oh…” The sound that Komaeda made—the evident sound that something clicked in his mind—was music to Naegi’s ears. “…Yes, that’s right. I did give Naegi-kun a pen a few months back as a gift, Hinata-kun. You should believe him. I was lying earlier.”

 

Hinata looked so lost at that moment. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his eyes were desperately looking at the phone as if Komaeda would magically see him if he does it enough. He was slowly shaking his head too as he opened his mouth to say something, only to close it again.

 

Naegi hums. “But that’s upsetting, Komaeda-kun. What Hinata-kun is being angry about is that you didn’t tell me that it had disappearing ink. He thinks that you're trying to ruin me.”

 

“No way! I’d never! I just thought that it would have been funny…” All Naegi’s disappointment for Komaeda disappeared. Really, he could just hug the other now. “I mean, I figured that you'd test the pen right away, so I thought you'd find out soon enough that it wasn’t just a normal pen. I'm so sorry… I guess I hadn’t predicted that you wouldn’t have tested it out…”

 

“It’s alright. Don’t apologize.” Naegi smiles at Hinata as he continues speaking to the phone. “I knew it. Komaeda-kun would always have a good reason. I was scared that you had an ulterior motive all along during our entire relationship… but I should have put my trust in you more! I'm so sorry. I hope you forgive me. I promise I’ll make it up to you. I was just feeling kind of cornered earlier, I guess… I mean, Hinata-kun won’t stop insisting that I was lying, after all.”

 

“…Hinata-kun, you're listening, right? Please believe Naegi-kun already.”

 

“…I don’t believe you.” Hinata finally manages to speak. He was still slowly shaking his head as he continues. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you, Komaeda.”

 

“…Why not? It’s true. I did give Naegi-kun a pen. What's wrong with that?”

 

“If that’s true, then why did you have to lie earlier!?” Hinata briefly closes his eyes, trying to compose himself. “If what you're saying right now is true, then that means that you don’t have ulterior motives! You didn’t have to deny that you gave Naegi a pen. Your immediate reaction would have been panic because you'll realize that you might have accidentally caused Naegi to ruin himself! But earlier, you were totally clueless. I want to believe your words earlier in the dorm, Komaeda. I want to believe that you didn’t know about the pen. Please, please just tell me the truth right now. Please stop trying to trick me.”

 

“…I really did give Naegi-kun a pen—”

 

“If that’s true, then what does the pen look like?” Naegi doesn’t want to admit that he did feel threatened when he heard Hinata’s question. “If it’s true that you bought that pen and gave it to Naegi, then you should know how it looks like. I want you to describe it to me in detail… and then I’ll believe you.”

 

Naegi decides to interrupt. “That’s enough, you don’t have to answer—”

 

“Let him answer it, Naegi.” But Hinata interrupts him too. “If you try to stop him, then I’ll conclude that you're lying. If he really did give it to you as you guys are claiming, then there's no problem with my request, right? It will be so easy to describe it. After all, there's no way that Komaeda already forgot what it looks like if it’s something that he wanted to give you.”

 

“Your request is unnecessary, Hinata-kun. What exactly are you trying to prove?” Naegi reminds himself to keep calm. “Komaeda-kun already admitted to giving me the pen. It’s your best choice to stop bothering us now.”

 

“No, I want to hear Komaeda describing the pen to me right now. I don’t understand why he shouldn’t. It’s not like it changes anything if he really did give it to you anyway. It’s just gonna take a short while.” Hinata stares straight at Naegi. “Komaeda… What does the pen look like?”

 

“Komaeda-kun, you don’t have to comply.” Naegi says anyway. “Hinata-kun is just being unreasonable.”

 

“What's unreasonable is that you won’t let him!” Hinata shakes his head. “Komaeda, just describe it already… please. So I’d know.”

 

“Komaeda-kun, it’s okay, you don’t have to say anything.” Naegi sees Hinata glaring at him as he speaks. “I know it hurts that this person you recognize as your best friend doesn’t seem to trust you and your words. I’ll always be here to comfort you. You don’t have to bother yourself with this anymore.”

 

“W-Why, you—it’s not that I don’t trust him! Weren’t you the one demanding definitive proof earlier!?” Hinata clenches his fists again. “Komaeda, it’s nothing personal. Please, I hope you know that I’ll always want to believe you, and that’s exactly why I want you to describe the pen… I want to believe you. I know that. Please, Komaeda.”

 

“…Naegi-kun.” Komaeda speaks finally. Naegi can’t see him right now, but he can tell that the other must be panicking a bit. “Well, see, the pen—”

 

“Komaeda-kun, you don’t have to force yourself.” Naegi repeats. “It’s okay. I’ll handle this for you. Just rest now, okay?”

 

“Naegi, why are you so—” Hinata stops speaking when Naegi ends the call and shoves his phone straight to his pocket. A look of disbelief was all over his face, and he was glaring straight at Naegi as he slowly shakes his head. “You…”

 

“Komaeda-kun already said that he gave me the pen.” Naegi smiles. “That’s all we need to know regarding this issue.”

 

“You're definitely lying!” Hinata continues shaking his head. “Komaeda was just trying to cover up for you, wasn’t he? Is that how your relationship works, Naegi? Will he cover up and lie to protect you!?”

 

“I wasn’t lying. The same goes with Komaeda-kun.” Naegi giggles. “Hinata-kun, you're being really weird right now, you know?”

 

“You're the one who's weird right now! You're not acting like the usual at all!” Hinata frowns. “If Komaeda really gave you the pen, you'd want him to describe it to us because that will solidify your argument even more. But instead, you… you stopped him and even ended the call. I can’t believe you.”

 

“I just found it unnecessary.”

 

“No.” Hinata firmly says. “Actually, this makes the most sense. Aside from the researchers, you're the only one who knows that I will take an important test that day. Everyone else thought I was just going to participate in a quiz bee somewhere. That’s why if there's someone who’d try to interfere in my test, it could only be you!”

 

“Oh, Hinata-kun.” Naegi sighs. “I guess it can’t be helped now.”

 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

 

“You're right.” Naegi smiles. “Nothing I say will change your mind now, right? So I’ll just accept your accusations. You're right, Hinata-kun. This was all my doing.”

 

“W-What…” Despite asserting it for a while now, Hinata still seemed really surprised for some reason. “I don’t understand—look, it’s not that I'm accusing you just for the hell of it. Of course, I don’t want to believe it either, so if you have something to say, just speak up! You’ve been such a great friend to me, you're always helping me out, so—”

 

“Haha, right, I did do those things, huh? It’s pretty embarrassing if you put it that way.” Naegi lets out a chuckle. “But as I said, it’s true. It’s all my doing. I was well aware of the pen, and I chose to lend it to you. That’s what happened.”

 

Hinata closes his eyes for a good while, almost as if hoping that once he opens his eyes again, all of this will be gone. He furrows his eyebrows when he makes eye contact with Naegi again, and he opens his mouth to say something, only to close it again.

 

“Haha, you looked so confused, Hinata-kun! As you said, this is the explanation that makes the most sense, right?” Naegi sheepishly smiles. “So why do you still looked so confused?”

 

“Yes, I did say it makes the most sense.” Hinata finally speaks. “I do acknowledge that it’s a possible happening. But that’s doesn’t mean that I understand _why_ it can happen! I’ve said this a lot of times before, but you—you were a great friend, you’ve always understood me, you were always there for me, so why? Why would you do something like that? I don’t understand anything!”

 

“I don’t want to have to explain everything to you, so I’ll try to keep it as short as possible. Simply put,” Naegi says. “I wanted you to fail your test, Hinata-kun.”

 

The entire courtyard was then silent yet again.

 

Hinata’s confusion starts to get replaced with displeasure, and his displeasure starts to contort into anger. He clenches his fist for what seems to be the hundredth time tonight. Naegi does wonder if ever Hinata really will have to courage to actually lift it and try to land a hit. “But why!? You're not making any sense at all! Was everything you told me before a lie, Naegi? When you were supporting me, when you were encouraging me, when you were listening to me—were you lying? Was it all just pretend to you!?”

 

“Does it still really matter at this point, Hinata-kun? You're only here because you wanted to know about the pen, right? You already have your answer, so maybe you should go away now.”

 

“Like hell does it matter!” Hinata grits his teeth. “Because of you… because of you, my secure position in the main course is gone! Because of you, everything I worked for is gone! Because of you—”

 

“Oh, that’s not a good habit, Hinata-kun.” Naegi bites his lower lip. “Everything that happened is your fault. You shouldn’t blame others for your mistakes.”

 

“My fault?” Hinata repeats. “What the hell are you even getting at, Naegi!?”

 

“Haha, hey, it’s not my fault that you believe everything you're told, you know.” Naegi smiles. “You say it’s an important test, but you didn’t even care enough to use your own pen. You didn’t even care enough to make sure that the pen you used was reliable! Everything was your fault, Hinata-kun. You practically asked for this to happen.”

 

“It’s because I trusted you! I never would have thought that you were the type of person to do that!” Hinata looks like he was close to tears. “Were you lying to everyone? Were you lying to Komaeda too? What kind of shit are you feeding his head? You must have told him some lies since he readily lied for you earlier! Hell, Naegi, do you even love him? I swear to god, I—”

 

“I think this is where your business ends, Hinata-kun.” Naegi replies. “It’s as you said earlier. My relationship with Komaeda-kun and your friendship with him are two separate things.”

 

“Shut up! Of course I can’t just stand by and do nothing if ever you're just lying to him too!”

 

“Since we’re talking about Komaeda-kun now…” Naegi sighs. “I don’t think he’ll be pleased if he sees you talking to me like this, you know.”

 

“Well, I don’t think he’ll be pleased if he finds out how much of a liar you are!”

 

Naegi actually laughs at that.

 

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t you go ahead and tell him then, Hinata-kun?” Naegi doesn’t stop the smile on his face. Hinata’s getting even funnier with each moment. “Tell him about me, go on. After all, you’ve always loved him, right? It’s natural that you'll want him to get away from a—what did you call it—a liar like me.”

 

“…H-How did you—”

 

“Haha, wait, don’t be so surprised now.” Naegi covers his mouth as he lets out a chuckle. “Anyone with a working brain would know, to be honest. That’s why I'm really concerned about Komaeda-kun’s intelligence since he still doesn’t know. It’s so obvious with the way you look at him, the way you talk to him, and the way you talk about him. Remember what you said earlier about how his feelings for me just shows in his face?”

 

Naegi chuckles. “The same can be said about you regarding him, Hinata-kun. It’s so obvious, you really sicken me! I can’t even begin to comprehend how you can face me with a straight face and act like everything is normal when you constantly lust after the person I'm with. Doesn’t it leave bad aftertaste in your mouth? Don’t you disgust yourself?”

 

“I do love him! That’s true! But don’t say it that way because I’ll never do something to intentionally ruin your relationship with him!” Hinata glares. “You don’t know how much it hurts having to watch you guys do whatever you're doing. You don’t know how much it hurts having to listen to him gush on about you all the time! But did I do anything about that? I didn’t, did I? Because he was happy, and that’s all I want! But if you're just lying all along, then that’s a different business!”

 

“Wait, wait, you're getting off tangent here, Hinata-kun. If you're trying to make me pity you, it’s not going to work.”

 

“I'm not trying to make you pity me!”

 

“Haha, sorry, I was kidding.” Naegi lightly scratches his cheek. “Anyway, anyway… what are you going to do then? Are you going to tell him about how I've been lying all along?”

 

“He deserves to know because he has to get away from you as possible if that’s the case!”

 

“That one is really funny, Hinata-kun. I didn’t know that your sense of humor was this good.” Naegi laughs again. “Well, that’s a good idea. There's one important question you have to address though…”

 

Naegi tilts his head. “Hinata-kun, do you think Komaeda-kun will believe you over me?”

 

Each time Hinata flinches, Naegi feels a short spark of satisfaction. That’s why when that flinch shows up again, Naegi really couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

 

“Ah, sorry, Hinata-kun. You must know that already, don’t you? I know, I know, you're trying hard to be tough right now, telling me that you'll let Komaeda-kun know about me… but deep down, you know, right? You know that you can’t really do anything about this, about him, because you know you won’t be able to prove it.”

 

“…I-I’ll prove it! Just watch me!” Hinata grits his teeth again. “I'm sure he already has a rough clue that there's something wrong with you! You forcing him to cooperate with you in lying to me about that pen—I just have to elaborate on that!”

 

“Ah, that pen? What are you talking about, Hinata-kun?” Naegi blinks. “There was no pen. Komaeda-kun never saw it, after all. I was just kidding earlier when I called him. It’s what usual couples do, right? They joke around with each other.”

 

“What are you trying to say!?”

 

“I'm saying that the pen doesn’t exist.” Naegi lets out a chuckle. “You left your exam blank on purpose. If I claim that, will you be able to prove otherwise?”

 

“Matsuda knows! He knows that you lent me a pen! He’ll help me prove it!”

 

“Oh, Hinata-kun.” Naegi smiles. “You’ve got that wrong.”

 

“What do you mean!?”

 

“Do you really think Matsuda-kun will attest for you, Hinata-kun?” Naegi bites his lower lip. “What if he's in on this too?”

 

“I-I can’t believe you! Matsuda has no reason to do that!”

 

“Hey, don’t be too sure.” Naegi chuckles. “You don’t know anything about Matsuda-kun, you know.”

 

“…How many of you are in on this?”

 

“That’s not important right now. Anyway,” Naegi clears his throat. “Komaeda-kun will never believe you even if you try, Hinata-kun. Not as long as you antagonize me, not me of all people. You yourself said it. You yourself saw how important I am to him. So you can’t do it, Hinata-kun.”

 

“I know that! But I'm not going to just stand here and not even try!”

 

“That’s really admirable, but see… I think you're forgetting something.” Naegi bites his lower lip. “You say I'm a liar, but are you really any better than me? Exactly how many things are you hiding from him? There's that thing you did while listening in on us… and there's how you're a Reserve Course Student. Or did you already tell him about that?”

 

“I’ll tell him about all of that someday! You can’t use that against me!”

 

“And then? If he finds out that you're from the Reserve Course, do you think he’ll still respect you? Wait, no,” Naegi clears his throat. “Do you think he’ll still trust you, even? Do you think he’ll still believe anything you're saying? Realistically, I don’t think so. I mean, even if we disregard the fact that you hid what you are to him, there's also the fact that he doesn’t even respect Reserve Course Students like you, right?”

 

“…I’ll still try because this isn’t about me! This is about you! Even if I'm not trustworthy to his eyes by then, if I offer sufficient proof that you're not good for him, I'm sure he’ll believe me!”

 

“No, you're not sure, Hinata-kun. Stop tricking yourself.”

 

“Why, you—”

 

“I don’t trust that you'll tell him soon enough anyway. Maybe I should take matters to my own hands and tell him the truth about how you're just a Reserve Course Student lying to him and everyone else.” Naegi nods to himself. “Right, if I do that, I don’t doubt that he’ll believe me. After all, unlike you, I'm sure I can prove my claim.”

 

“I can prove my claim too! I’ll find a way! I can’t let this just slip by!”

 

“Ah, right, sorry. I guess I got distracted, haha.” Naegi scratches the back of his head. “This wasn’t a question of proving claims, after all. The issue here is who he’ll believe. Right, I'm sure that no matter how good your proof is, he’ll still choose to believe me. It’s kinda sad for you, huh?”

 

“…You sound so sure that he’ll choose you. You may be important to him, but I'm still his best friend. You can’t change that.”

 

“Haha, are you trying to joke again, Hinata-kun? You know, maybe you should have tried out for the Super High School Level Comedian. I think your chances would have been higher then.” Naegi lets out a chuckle. “Well, who knows? Maybe you do stand a chance, after all. Especially if you actually proceed with that Project Hope that I was hearing about—it’s something that will give you a talent, right? Maybe then you can possibly go against me and not valiantly fail. I’d like to see you try then.”

 

“Y-You… You even know about that.”

 

“Haha, I try to be aware about my surroundings.” Naegi smiles. “Anyway, if you proceed with Project Hope, maybe Komaeda-kun will finally notice you. He might even think you hold stronger hope than me, and you might even become the hope that he was looking for… It’s a tempting outcome, isn’t it, Hinata-kun? You get a talent, you get me away from him, he notices you, and you'll end up together. Just like something that Fukawa-san can possibly write!

 

“So now,” Naegi pauses. “What are you going to do, Hinata-kun?”

 

Hinata was breathing deeply as he clenches his fist, this time, actually lifting it. His hands were shaking as he does—Naegi’s actually curious to know if Hinata can actually land a painful hit in this state, so he just closes his eyes. Now that he thinks about it, he has never really been punched by anyone before.

 

But a couple of seconds passes, and he still hasn’t felt anything aside from a brief breeze of air. There was the soft sound of something firm making contact with the floor, and when he finally opens his eyes, he can say that he's actually pretty surprised.

 

There was Ikusaba Mukuro, Enoshima not too far away. Ikusaba was holding Hinata’s fist in her hand, that usual deadpan expression that she has was present on her face, and it was almost comical how Enoshima was the exact opposite. Enoshima had a wide grin on her face, her own fists clenched by her sides in excitement.

 

“Ahhh! I can’t believe that you were going to let this guy land a punch on you, Naegi-kun! Good thing that you can count on us! I said earlier that we got you covered, right!?” Enoshima exclaims. Her words were disapproving, but her face and mannerisms seem to scream otherwise. “And good thing Mukuro-neechan wasn’t as disappointing as I thought! Hey, hey, you can actually do good things sometimes, huh?”

 

“Ah, Ikusaba-san, Enoshima-san,” Naegi lets out a sheepish giggle. “You didn’t have to. I got everything under control.”

 

“Let go!” Hinata demands, but Ikusaba doesn’t yield. “So you guys are in on this too… M-Matsuda was informing you guys, wasn’t he!? How long has this been going on!?”

 

Enoshima lets out a loud laugh. “Hey, hey, you're better than this, Hinata-kun! Your arguments actually started well earlier, you know. Did you panic halfway? Did you despair halfway!? How does it feel being betrayed by your dear angelic friend!? Tell me!”

 

“Enoshima-san, you shouldn’t pester Hinata-kun, you know.” Naegi places a hand on her shoulder. “I think he has had enough for tonight.”

 

“I'm not going to let this go.” Hinata tries to move his hand away from Ikusaba, but he fails. “I'm going to do something about this. Remember that.”

 

“Aw, he's so cute. Look at him.” Enoshima coos. “He's like a baby, to be honest.”

 

“I know I don’t stand a chance against you right now, but if I have to do something drastic for it— if I have to let myself get cut open for it—” Hinata’s fists were trembling as he speaks. “—then I don’t care! I'm going to stop you no matter what it takes!”

 

The wind was cold that night, and it was silent except for them.

 

But Naegi would be lying if he says that he didn’t actually feel warmth within his chest as excitement courses through his veins when he hears Hinata’s words.

 

“As I said earlier, Hinata-kun,” Naegi doesn’t stop himself from smiling as Enoshima lets out another loud laugh. “I’d like to see you try.”


End file.
